RE: tlug: X resolution / color depth

[Scott Stone <sstone@example.com>]

On Thu, 19 Mar 1998, Jonathan Byrne--3Web wrote:

> >what questions do you think that it 'shouldn't' ask?
> 
> I think you should not need to enter your monitor sync rates, how much
> memory your video card has, or any of that other stuff.  On a Mac, you
> don't.  On Windows, you don't.  A lot of Mac and Windows users today
> wouldn't even know where to find that information.  There are very few
> monitor drivers for X right now, so telling it your specs is almost a given
> for many people, I think.

as for sync rates, I wish you *could* - Windows always uses crappy timings
and I have to go in and mess with it before it runs 70Hz right.

video ram - TurboLinux doesn't ask, if it can probe it from the card,
which it can for most.  Now, if all cards were supported by the hw
manufacturer, like they are for Windows or Mac...

> 
> I think what there may need to be at some point is two install options for
> Linux: one that does everything for a person automatically and more or less
> invisibly, much like Windows does, and a second that shows you everything
> it's doing and lets you do things manually or confirm them, like current
> installers.

We tried that with 1.0, sort of.  The trick is finding what defaults to
assume, etc.. for example, do we just assume the default 'safe' monitor,
or..?  It's more complicated than it sounds.

> 
> Moving a little farther afield (and maybe people are working on this?),
> installing a software package should also add it to the menu of your window
> manager, assuming it has one, like what you get under you-know-what.  Right
> now, the only way to find out what packages you have is to start Glint and
> check.   And even then, most of them are neither on a menu anywhere nor on
> your path, so there's a lot of work involved in trying them out to see it
> they're things you want to keep, or things you want to reclaim the disk
> space from.  I know that's a big order because of how many window managers
> there are and because some are more menu-based than others.  But these are
> the kinds of polish that Linux will need to make it in the mass market.  You
> don't think I'm the only person who will always say "But <this other OS>
> does it automatically," right? :-)

working on it.  RH5 claims to have this, but I don't know how well it
works.  If I did it, it'd be for Afterstep only at first... I don't want
to develop stuff for what's essentially an 'unsupported' wm as far as
we're concerned (we made the decision to ONLY support Turbodesk - keeps
things simpler).

> 
> Windows and Mac OS may not be technically superior to Linux, but they still
> offer considerably more polish, and that's some of what people are buying.
> We've got slick X features like having a virtual screen bigger than your
> monitor that people may love, but they to have the ease-of-use things, too.

I hate that.. :)

> X is nice, but people are going to want the polish.  Converts are also going
> to want it to work as much like their old computer as possible (This is an
> issue for the people who write FVWM, though.  They need to make it work more
> like Windows 95 in some areas, IMO).
> 

most people convert to Linux because they're sick of what they were using
before.  if they liked w95 so much, they'd stick with it, IMHO.

> I may be an annoyance to a lot of people with my harping on this stuff, but
> really, I firmly believe it's where Linux needs to go to be more than a
> professionals-only and hacker OS.  It's where we need to go to penetrate the
> mainstream and grab the market share.  And when that happens, developers
> will notice and hardware vendors will notice, and start writing a lot more
> software and a lot more drivers for Linux.  And once that starts to happen,
> it starts to snowball.  That was key for both Windows and the Mac.
> 

we're working on it.  This Applixware-J thing will be a big boost, I
think.

> If Apple succesfully gets Rhapsody out the door and it's everything they
> claim, it will be a real "Mac meets UNIX" type of marriage.  It's still an
> OS aimed at the developer and server market, but it's something that a
> person with some knowledge could run at home if they wanted to.  If it's any
> good, you may see a lot of G-3 Macs for individual users being ordered with
> Rhapsody.  Linux could be like that too.  Big, ambitious goals?  Sure.  But
> it we all really wanna take over the software world, we gotta think big :-)
> 

Macs are never going to be server machines, I don't think.  They're too
cute for that :)  (and too expensive - why would I pay all that $$ for a
G3 when the same money gets me an Alpha??)

> >I'm rewriting TurboXconfigurator right now... so now is a good time to
> >make suggestions :)  This one, I think, will actually test your X setup to
> 
> I've got one.  If you choose Custom for your monitor specs under
> CXconfigurator or the TL installer, it should let you actually type in your
> numbers.  While I think people shouldn't have to type that stuff, we need to
> assume that anyone who does choose Custom knows their monitor specs and may
> want to type in the exact ones rather than choose from a range.  I want to
> :-)

It'll do that.  Plus it'll use the huge monitor database to find defaults,
etc, AND it'll actually try to test stuff before finishing.  

Speaking of which, everyone send me your monitor's specs (look in the
manual) so I can update the database with all the new stuff :)

--------------------------------------------------
Scott M. Stone <sstone@example.com, sstone@example.com>
               <sstone@example.com>
Linux Developer/Systems Administrator for Pacific HiTech, Inc. 
http://www.pht.com		http://armadillo.pht.co.jp
http://www.pht.co.jp	        http://www.turbolinux.com


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